The present invention relates to medium recording and reproduction apparatus and method, and more particularly to regulations for treating a management information updating method in an apparatus for performing recording and reproduction while adjusting laser power for a medium and updating management information thereof.
Recently, there is a recording and reproduction apparatus in which a semiconductor laser is used to irradiate an optical disc recording medium represented by CD-R/RW (compact disc recordable/rewritable), DVD±R/RW (digital versatile disc±recordable/rewritable disc), DVD-RAM (digital versatile disc-random access memory), Blu-ray Disc (hereinafter abbreviated to BD) and the like with laser light so that data is recorded in the recording medium. In these optical disc apparatuses, laser light emitted from the semiconductor laser is focused on a recording plane of the optical disc to change the physical property of the recording plane, so that recording marks having different reflection factors are formed in the recording plane to record data.
These optical discs are supplied from a plurality of makers or manufacturers and since the recording sensitivity of the recording plane is different in each maker, the recording characteristic is scattered. Furthermore, since the recording characteristic is also dependent on the ambient temperature, it is widely different dependent on the recording situation. Accordingly, even if the whole area of the recording plane is irradiated with the laser light having the fixed intensity, it is not always the optimum irradiation intensity.
Accordingly, calibration for setting the irradiation intensity of laser light optimum (OPC: optimum power calibration) is performed to improve the recording quality before start of recording. For example, in case of DVD-R, a power calibration area is provided in an inner peripheral area of the disc (refer to Standard ECMA-359, 1st Edition/December 2004, 80 mm (1.46 Gbytes per side) and 120 mm (4.70 Gbytes per side) DVD Recordable Disk (DVD-R)). The optical disc apparatus performs tentative recording and reproduction using predetermined pattern data in the power calibration area before data is recorded in a user data recording area and calculates the optimum laser power irradiation intensity to the optical disc on the basis of the result of the tentative recording.
Moreover, the recording state of the optical disc is stored in a management information storage area provided in the disc. For example, DVD-R has the management area named RMD area. The management information is additionally recorded therein when data is recorded in the user data area at necessary timing such as during recording of data, upon change of disc structure, upon execution of the optimum power calibration (OPC) and the like. This is described in JP-A-2006-147117 (US 2006/0083141).
A temporary defect management area (TDMA) of BD-R (Blu-ray disc recordable) corresponds to the RMD area of DVD-R and the TDMA is also updated (information is additionally recorded therein) even upon update of spare data recording information in defect management during recording in addition to the above update timing. The TMDA is provided in each recording layer and is used in order of the number assigned thereto in the standards. Further, the defect management method using TDMA is described in JP-A-2006-344375 (US 2008/0181072).